For all you insomniacs out there here is the health care reform bill “H. R. 3200To provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reducethe growth in health care spending, and for other purposes.” I personally like the “and for other purposes.”

In case anyone is wondering, No! I did not read it, it would hurt my brain too much to do so.

Just for fun here is the list of things going around the net and on radio pertaining to the bill. Read them and check the bill text and see what you think.

• Page 16: States that if you have insurance at the time of the bill becoming law and change, you will be required to take a similar plan. If that is not available, you will be required to take the gov option!• Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!• Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed! • Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)• Page 42: The "Health Choices Commissioner" will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None. • Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services.• Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard. • Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer. • Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (example: SEIU, UAW and ACORN) • Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange. • Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans) • Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens • Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan. • Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter. • Page 124: No company can sue the government for price-fixing. No "judicial review" is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed.• Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages. • Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives. • Page 126: Employers MUST pay healthcare bills for part-time employees AND their families. • Page 149: Any employer with a payroll of $400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll <>BR • Page 150: Any employer with a payroll of $250K-400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays a 2 to 6% tax on payroll • Page 167: Any individual who doesnt' have acceptable healthcare (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income. • Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them). • Page 195: Officers and employees of Government Healthcare Bureaucracy will have access to ALL American financial and personal records. • Page 203: "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax." Yes, it really says that. • Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors and the poor most affected." • Page 241: Doctors: no matter what speciality you have, you'll all be paid the same (thanks, AMA!) • Page 253: Government sets value of doctors' time, their professional judgment, etc. • Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private healthcare industries. • Page 268: Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs. • Page 272: Cancer patients: welcome to the wonderful world of rationing! • Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions. • Page 298: Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government. • Page 317: Doctors: you are now prohibited for owning and investing in healthcare companies! • Page 318: Prohibition on hospital expansion. Hospitals cannot expand without government approval. • Page 321: Hospital expansion hinges on "community" input: in other words, yet another payoff for ACORN. • Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing. • Page 341: Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMOs, etc. • Page 354: Government will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals. • Page 379: More bureaucracy: Telehealth Advisory Committee (healthcare by phone). • Page 425: More bureaucracy: Advance Care Planning Consult: Senior Citizens, assisted suicide, euthanasia?• Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Mandatory. Appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time. • Page 425: Goverment provides approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death. • Page 427: Government mandates program that orders end-of-life treatment; government dictates how your life ends. • Page 429: Advance Care Planning Consult will be used to dictate treatment as patient's health deteriorates. This can include an ORDER for end-of-life plans. An ORDER from the GOVERNMENT. • Page 430: Government will decide what level of treatments you may have at end-of-life. • Page 469: Community-based Home Medical Services: more payoffs for ACORN. • Page 472: Payments to Community-based organizations: more payoffs for ACORN. • Page 489: Government will cover marriage and family therapy. Government intervenes in your marriage.• Page 494: Government will cover mental health services: defining, creating and rationing those services.

As has been pointed out by others there is a lot of vested interest in keeping US health care as the status quo. Many of these groups are using scare tactics rather than have a intelligent debate on how to fix the obvious long term problems. It's clear something needs to be done. The long term costs of what we have now is not sustainable. The aging population, the ever rising costs of new health care procedures that lengthen life spans and the real problem and costs of the uninsured need to be addressed. There is no health care bill yet. Only the work of various committees that have some jurisdiction on parts of the health care puzzle. There is no reconciliation between House and Senate bills. That will be weeks in the future. What's scary are the back room deals that will be made to get something into law. There are objective measures of a nations health care quality vs. it's cost. Unfortunately the US doesn't compare well with many other developed nations. We spend way too much for what we get.

The Washington Post newspaper, the one I subscribe to, has some objective reporting on the health care issue. See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ Unfortunately, understanding all the issues is exceedingly time consuming.

Funny Congress wont be covered by this health care bill. Last I checked they work for us. I think all of Washington should be covered by the same coverage the people they represent are covered by.Democrat or Republican they are all dirty. Our reps need to STOP taking legal bribes. NO one represents us anymore.

Before you actually believe the list of lies above, you may want to take a few minutes to cross reference them in the actual bill.. I just randomly chose about 1/2 dozen of the Glenn Beck/Faux news/Sarah Palin hysterics listed and tried to find them on the page listed and they aren't there.

As Gleen Beck makes a point of saying follow the money, I just wonder how much he & some others like Rush get. They have the resources to investigate all of this yet choose to fabricate lies & in doing so I believe not only doing a disservice to their followers but to the population in general. As the old saying goes nobody does nothing for nothing.

Looks like a well researched and referenced paper on the ethics of allocating scarce medical resources. Note there are three authors not just Ezekeil Emanuel. Also note the quote, "The views expressed are the authors’ [note plural] own. They do not reflect any position or policy of the National Institutes of Health, US Public Health Service, or Department of Health and Human Services."

Yanche wrote:Looks like a well researched and referenced paper on the ethics of allocating scarce medical resources. Note there are three authors not just Ezekeil Emanuel. Also note the quote, "The views expressed are the authors’ [note plural] own. They do not reflect any position or policy of the National Institutes of Health, US Public Health Service, or Department of Health and Human Services."

What's the problem with it?

You forgot to add "yet" to the end of that.

To believe in the Obama plan, you'd have to believe that govenment has your best interest in mind and they clearly don't.

Congress GAVE us this "broken" system and now we are expected to trust the same people who pay $400 for a toilet seat and $1200 for a hammer to lower costs and improve efficiencies.

Efficiencies like the USPS who will take $45 billion this year and lose $7 billion on the deal. Plus put how many people out of work?

Tell you what, anyone who believes the tripe coming out of D.C. should put in for a check up from the neck up. From what I hear, your wait time for an appointment will be just about over when this thing passes.

jpete wrote:To believe in the Obama plan, you'd have to believe that govenment has your best interest in mind and they clearly don't.

So logically you believe current providers of medical coverage, the insurance companies, have your best interest in mind? Denying medical coverage for pre-existing conditions is a good idea? Having life time maximums is a good idea? Loosing coverage when you loose your job is a good idea?

Yanche as I said before I don't think anyone doesn't believe the system needs to be reformed. My question is this, we know where the major issues lie such as insurance why not fix them. For example with insurance we could remove the roadblocks that block competition such as the insurance companies selling across state lines to bring more competition into many areas. Mandate the hospitals charge the same thing for any procedure to anyone. Mandate that the insurance company have a nationally standardized minimum plan BUT we don't tell them what they charge for this plan except it has to be the same cost for anyone. Remove group coverages for other plans and force them to offer every plan to anyone.... Sounds good for starters? I believe most of the issues with insurance is the anti competitive environment.